Abkhazia, Georgia foreign ministers to discuss border death

MOSCOW, May 22 /TASS/. Abkhazia’s Foreign Ministry has expressed deep regret over a Georgian citizen’s death on the two countries’ border near the Psou River and promised to discuss the incident with Georgian officials at the forthcoming meetings.

"We regret the tragic incident that has taken place. The Abkhazian side intends to discuss it at the next Georgian-Abkhazian meeting to be devoted to mechanisms for the prevention of incidents in the town of Gal and reaction to them," the Abkhazian Foreign Ministry said in an official statement.

The ministry also noted that Abkhazia’s Military Prosecutor’s Office would ask Georgia’s competent authorities to provide all the materials on the case to the Abkhazian side at the forthcoming round of Geneva discussions on June 14-15.

The Abkhazian Foreign Ministry has urged the government in Tbilisi to refrain from fueling tensions over the incident. "It is regretful that the Georgian side, including the Foreign Ministry, has decided to use the incident for fueling tensions with an aim to score political points in an information war. It has described the situation in Abkhazia as absolutely uncontrollable and has put all the blame for the incident on the Russian side, which it claims to be an ‘occupational force’," the Abkhazian Foreign Ministry said.

The incident took place in the territory of the Nabakia checkpoint on May 19. A drunk Georgian national, Gigla Otkhozoriya, clashed with a border guard from Abkhazia’s state security service who refused to let the Georgian enter the republic’s territory without the necessary papers.

The brawl moved to the territory of the border village of Khurcha, Georgia’s Zugdidi district, where Gigla Otkhozoriya was shot dead from firearms, according to reports.

Abkhazia’s Military Prosecutor’s Office has initiated criminal proceedings against the border guard on charges of deliberate murder under article 99 of the Abkhazian Penal Code.